27 August 2008

Whilst reading about the Mythbusters and their latest debunking activities, I came across Bad Astronomy by Dr Phil Plait, a website dedicated to clearing up common misconceptions about science.

What I like about site: It is not at all sensationalist; written in an academic writing style; the topics covered in his site makes you think and before you know it, you end up researching a little bit more on your own.

For instance, read the section on Bad Coriolis. Albeit he links to another site but he did bring up the topic as a commonly misunderstood notion.

What is it about? Well, apparently, even though the Earth's rotation does influence the movement of large bodies of water and (dollops of air?), it has minimal influence on smaller bodies of water. Read the site for full explanation.

Eh? Means that the Earth doesn't really have that big a pull on water you flush down potty - i.e toilet flushing clockwise and counterclockwise in different hemispheres is a bit of a fairy tale.

I feel so cheated; my geography teacher told me this as well! Right now, there are 20 odd survivors from my Geo class who are spreading the bad word. At least you hope they are talking about something useful and not doing crack in an alleyway.